


Would Be His Thoughts

by voleuse



Category: The OC
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-16
Updated: 2005-10-16
Packaged: 2017-10-04 09:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Narcissism fails to capture my love</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Would Be His Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Set mid-S2. Title and summary adapted from Billy Collins' _Freud_.

It all starts when Cohen refuses to watch _Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith_ with her. Not even a matinee. Not even on a bootleg she got from the skeezy sophomore that's always hanging out by the drinking fountain beside the gym.

"I refuse to encourage your obsessive--and slightly creepy, might I add--devotion to Brad Pitt," he pronounces.

She presents the washed-out photo of the bootleg's cover. "Not even for Angelina Jolie? Come on, Cohen. She's totally hot."

"Not even for Angelina Jolie," he responds, and he doesn't even _look_.

And that's when Summer starts to think that Cohen might be a little bit gay.

*

 

Marissa, being Marissa, is unavailable for normal things like hanging out with her best friend on a Friday night. She has too many things to do. Or, one particular person.

Summer wonders if everyone she knows has abandoned the heterosexual lifestyle. Not that she cares, much, but she'd really like to go see the damn movie already.

She doesn't even bother calling Zach, because _hello_. Duh.

*

 

And the way everything falls out, somehow, is that Ryan shows up at her bedroom door on a Thursday night, looking vaguely uncomfortable, yet determined.

"Girlfriend?" Summer asks, letting the door swing open and returning to her yoga mat.

"Home." Ryan hovers in the doorway for a second, then ambles over. Sits one and a half feet away from her and leans against his knees. "She thinks Angelina Jolie is an insult to womanhood in general. Something about ridiculous expectations and playing to stereotypes."

Summer considers the idea. "Bullshit," she decides.

Ryan doesn't smile, much.

Summer hits _play_ on her remote control.

*

 

Summer shifts where she sits.

Ryan clears his throat.

"That was hot," she observes.

He clears his throat again. "Yeah."

She looks over at him, carefully training her eyes on his face, and not. There.

"Is it weird?" She bites her lip, gestures vaguely in the space between them. "This. I mean."

Ryan's jaw flexes, and she holds up a hand.

"Never mind. Don't answer that."

He nods. "Right."

"Okay."

*

 

She spends the next half hour looking sidelong and down, wishing he'd move his arm _two inches_, so she could know for sure, and stop imagining.

But he doesn't, and she doesn't. She tries not to squirm.

After the movie, she offers him a soda, or whatever, and he says he should get back because it's late.

She walks him to the door, and they stand there awkwardly.

"Thanks," she says. "For coming. To watch the movie."

"Yeah," he replies. He is not looking at her face. Kind of lower.

Summer crosses her arms over her chest, and his eyes snap up.

She raises an eyebrow, and thinks she should have worn a bra.

"So," he says. "Good night."

"Night," she mutters as he walks away.

She stands in the doorway until Mrs. Cohen's SUV has left the driveway.

"Yeah," she says to herself. "Weird."

*

 

They never speak of it again.


End file.
